Our event showcasing services and opportunities for disabled people
By Lisa Cormack, Business Development Manager
As we’re busy getting ready for No Limits 2025, I decided to look back at where the event all started, as well as sharing what we do to get ready for the event.
You might even pick up a tip or two if you’re planning your own event for people with lived experience of disability and long-term health conditions.
The history
Going back eleven years, we started our flagship event and called it CILAD, or Cheshire Independent Living Awareness Day – hopefully you can see why we changed the title!
Back then the event was held at Moss Farm Leisure Centre in a huge marquee on the sports field. It was always held on the last bank holiday weekend in August as part of a summer festival.
CILAD proved to be extremely popular as an important source of support, advice and opportunities for people with lived experience of disability and long-term health conditions, and their families.
We have always invited charities, organisations and other non-profit organisations to our events to enable us to offer a concentration of the right kind of advice and support in one place. Back then we had entertainment on offer too – we’ve had an acrobatic motorcycle team, wheelchair rugby, face-painting, guest speakers, bouncy castles and even some chickens!
Then:
No Limits is born!
In 2020, the COVID-19 Pandemic meant that events like CILAD ground to a halt. While we were obviously disappointed, we used the time to reflect on what our event should concentrate on in future.
The first part of this was to give the event a new name. We wanted something that would make a stronger statement than the old name, as well as being easier to remember!
“No Limits” was suggested, and we felt it was the perfect title, with the aim of the event being to showcase opportunities and support to live with No Limits.
Making No Limits Accessible
It was particularly important to us to find a fully accessible venue, in a central location. As well as this we knew we had to make sure that we could offer:
- Blue badge parking
- Accessible toilets
- Changing Places
- BSL Interpretation of all the key speeches
We also decided to keep the event entirely indoors to make sure everyone was able to access all parts of it, and to give disabled entrepreneurs the opportunity to have a stall.
By 2022 we were ready to try our new format, which went well, although we had plenty of feedback on how to continue to improve. As part of taking all this feedback on board, in 2024 we took the big step of changing the day to the weekend!
The feedback from No Limits 2024 was brilliant, with attendees saying they appreciated better parking, a more accessible event overall and the move to a weekend. We also had great feedback on what visitors took away from the event, including a better understanding of the opportunities available locally for disabled people.
They said the event helped to raise awareness of the importance of independent living and access to everyday life for people with lived experience of disability, which was exactly what we set out to achieve.
No Limits 2025
This year we are aiming to make it even better and acting on feedback we will be making more use of side rooms for talks and entertainment to reduce noise, as well as improving our signage. The planning for the event started way back in September 2024, with the event team meeting regularly to discuss what the programme should look like and any changes we wanted to make.
Deciding on who to invite to speak and what people would like to hear is a balance between looking at what went well last time, while also wanting to offer something new and interesting.
Now:
With only a few weeks to go now we’re so excited about this year’s event. You can come along for support and advice or just to enjoy the atmosphere and our amazing programme of events.
Hope to see you there!
When: Saturday 26th April 2025
Where: Brio Leisure, Northwich Memorial Court
Time: 12noon – 4pm
Cost: FREE entry
